They’re back: Today’s Fridays for Future strike — the first in 18 months — will see youth activists taking to the streets again to push progress on solutions to climate change.
Here’s what you can do to raise awareness and seek solutions where you are.
For California high school seniors, a new twist in college decisions — worry over guns on campus
By Ryann Perlstein
GSS correspondent
LOS ANGELES — As high school seniors across the U.S. receive their college acceptance letters over the next few weeks, students in California say gun laws may be a factor when it comes to deciding where to spend the next four years of their lives.
“By choosing a college (in an area with) stricter gun laws, I will have more security, feel safer, and I will feel more at ease in the environment around me,” said Ishika Dhingra, a junior at Viewpoint School in Calabasas, California.
In California, a license is required to carry a concealed weapon. These permits are issued only by California sheriffs, and the person must have a reason (usually “self-defense”). Some California counties, such as Los Angeles, refuse to issue permits. Overall, the state of California has a greater number of regulations than the federal government. When it comes to presidential elections, California tends to be a blue state, one that Hillary Clinton won by nearly 62 percent in the 2016 election.
A poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California conducted in March after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on Feb. 14 found that 87 percent of registered Democrats, 68 percent of independents and 48 percent of Republicans — up from 28 percent in 2017 — support stricter gun control laws.
In Texas, Colorado, Georgia, Utah, and Kansas, public universities have so-called “concealed carry” laws that allow people to carry guns in public places.
Texas campuses listed on the website of Armed Campuses, a project of The Campaign to Keep Guns off Campus and The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, may restrict gun-bearing in “certain sensitive areas and buildings” on campus, but not the entire campus.
In other states, like Oregon, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Ohio, schools can decide where a person may carry a concealed weapon or who may be allowed to do so.
Worry over school safety and gun laws is prompting choices even among juniors who are still researching their college picks.
“Gun laws will definitely impact where I go to college. I am mostly applying to universities on the East Coast or in California, and my parents will most likely not let me apply to schools in the South due to the political climate there,” said Wil LoCurto, a junior at Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino, California.
Many universities with prominent sports programs are located in the South, which a 2012 Washington Post analysis called “a clear outlier” among other U.S. regions, with seven deaths due to gun assault per 100,000 population in 2010 compared with four deaths per 100,000 population in the Northeast.
“I feel like gun laws have an impact on where I am going for college because I want to have a safe environment when I am going to college. I don’t want to have to worry about my safety along with my school work and volleyball. (Going to college) is so much stress as is, and adding another stress that could be solved by enforcing (stricter gun) laws would help the overall college experience,” said Darynne Bickers, a junior at Viewpoint School who is already being recruited by colleges for women’s volleyball.
Going off to college is a major adjustment from the previous 18 years of a student’s life. Overall, students (particularly from liberal-leaning areas such as California) seem to want some aspects of comfort, such as a familiar political climate, while adjusting to a new environment.
“Going to college is a big adjustment already, and so I want an educational environment where I will feel safe without having to worry about people walking around with guns on campus,” said LoCurto.
Featured photo: Thousands of middle and high school students turned out on April 20, 2018, for a march on the Iowa state Capitol building in Des Moines to commemorate the 20th anniversary of a gun massacre that killed 13 students at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, on April 20, 1999. Photo by @Claire4Iowa on Twitter.
—Perlstein is a student at Viewpoint School in Calabasas, California.
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